Tanshui The oldest of the port settlements in northern Taiwan. The area was occupied by the Spanish in the 1620s after they had seized Chi-lung farther east. In 1642 the Spanish were driven out by the Dutch, and in 1662 the Dutch in their turn were expelled by Koxinga (Cheng Ch’eng-kung), a man of mixed Chinese Japanese ancestry who ruled the island for a time; the port was restored to Chinese control in 1683.